Facilitating resilience to support and prepare first-year diagnostic radiography students for the clinical environment

Abstract

The radiography profession is considered challenging, characterised by radiographers working under immense pressure. Radiographers must make complex decisions involving imaging techniques often involving very ill or severely injured patients and they must effectively manage high workloads and rapid patient turnaround times. Managing these challenges requires a high degree of resilience. In the study context, radiography students commence learning in the clinical environment from their first year of study, thus they form an integral part of the workforce before they qualify as radiographers. The literature demonstrates that when radiography students transition from the academic to the clinical environment many feel completely overwhelmed and experience uncertainty, anxiety and stress. Despite this, students are expected to function effectively in the demanding radiography environment. In the South African context, there is a growing emphasis on the integration of resilience as a graduate attribute, acknowledging the inevitability of challenges and the complexity of problem-solving. Therefore, it would be important that students are not merely adopting coping mechanisms but are also introduced to skills that foster resilience, enabling them to manage the stressors of the clinical environment. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to explore the concept of resilience as experienced by radiography students in the clinical environment and to develop a teaching model to assist radiography educators in fostering resilience as a strategy to support and prepare students for the clinical environment. This research adopted a qualitative, explorative, descriptive, contextual, and theory-generative approach. Theory generation, necessitating four steps, was used to develop the model in this study. Step 1, concept analysis, required the completion of focus group interviews with first-year diagnostic radiography students to explore how they interpret the meaning of resilience coupled with the exploration of the influences of resilience as it relates to the clinical environment. Four overarching themes were developed: students’ understanding of resilience, students’ readiness for workplace learning, interpersonal interactions as they relate to the clinical environment, and factors affecting the transition to the clinical environment. Results showed that first-year radiography students associated resilience as a positive concept for learning. They experienced considerate negative emotions associated with their initial clinical placement which impacted their confidence negatively. In addition, students felt ill-prepared for the various interactions of the clinical environment. Most of the findings relating to interactions with qualified radiographers and lecturers highlighted the need for building supportive relationships with students. In Step 1 of model development, inductive reasoning was used to identify the central concepts: facilitation, self-efficacy, and social connections. Subsequently, the identified concepts were defined and classified using dictionaries and literature sources. In Step 2 relationships between the concepts were explored, and in Step 3 a model wherein resilience is emphasised to better prepare first-year diagnostic radiography students for the clinical environment was developed. Lastly, in Step 4, a detailed description of the operationalisation of the model to facilitate resilience among radiography students was provided. Specifically, the guidelines offer practical actions guiding radiography educators to facilitate resilience amongst radiography students, ultimately improving students’ ability to navigate challenges in the clinical environment. Practical actions include reflection, active listening and embracing learned optimism.